Technique for the visualization and determination of the surface-erosion profile caused by ion bombardment

A technique for the experimental high-precision measurement of the surface-material erosion profile caused by ion bombardment is proposed. It is based on the preliminary deposition of a coating consisting of submicron layers of different materials with different colors. The erosion profile is determined using multilayer copper and aluminum coatings. An important advantage of the proposed procedure is that the erosion profile of the surface treated with an ion beam can be estimated preliminarily without using complex measuring instruments.